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INTRODUCTION

Honourable Speaker,
Members of the House,
Distinguished Guests,
Residents of the Province,
All protocol observed.

I am greatly honoured to be standing before you to make my sixth budget speech as MEC for Public Works in Limpopo. As we look back to our first speech five years ago, we can see that a great deal has changed in our world. Unfortunately, we have seen an increase in international turmoil, but here at home we have seen great progress. There are already exciting and promising signs of an African rebirth through NEPAD, as illustrated by the peace deal in the Congo and increasing democratisation of the continent. South Africa is rapidly becoming an economic success story amongst developing nations, a model for peace and stability in Africa, and one of the world's favourite tourist destinations. Along with the rest of the country, Limpopo has also embarked on a steep development curve. As described by MEC Mufamadi, the province is poised to be the recipient of huge investments in mining. The successful eclipse event has highlighted the province as a tourist destination. As described by MEC Motsoaledi, there are also very exciting prospects for agricultural development in the province. In this context, our department has spent the last five years developing its capacity to provide the physical infrastructure which is required to facilitate this economic development.

Since 1994, our Department has been faced with many challenges. From the former apartheid administrations, we inherited a situation in which personnel expenditure was crowding out other expenditure. We could not afford to purchase the necessary materials and tools to keep our people busy, the provincial road network was rapidly deteriorating, and service delivery standards were very low. This situation was compounded by the devastating floods, which occurred in the province in February 2000.

Honourable Speaker, I am proud to be able to stand here today and say that we have been through tough times over the past nine years, and emerged leaner, stronger and fitter. Building on the foundation laid by MEC Magadzi, we have been able to improve our staff morale, bring our personnel expenditure under control, improve our service delivery standards, and arrest the deterioration of provincial roads and government buildings.

REVIEW OF THE 2002 2003 FINANCIAL YEAR

Financial Review

Last financial year, our department was allocated R1, 06 billion. We overspent our budget by R77 million. This was due to severance packages, which we paid out as part of the public service restructuring process under Resolution 7 of the Public Service Central Bargaining Chamber. This over-expenditure was unavoidable and unforeseen because Resolution 7 was signed after the beginning of the financial year, and we were obliged to implement it immediately. Thus, notwithstanding the over-expenditure on personnel, we neither underspent nor overspent on our budget.

We also managed the expenditure of R197 million on construction and maintenance of infrastructure on behalf of the Department of Health and Welfare, and R188 million on behalf of the Department of Education. The Health and Welfare capital budget was fully spent. 95% of the Department of Education's capital budget was spent, and Treasury approved rollovers for the remainder.

Honourable Speaker and Members of the House, in Limpopo we have managed to avoid the problem of under-expenditure on infrastructure, which is often a problem for government institutions. This will help us to motivate for more money from national government in future.

Outputs and Outcomes

Job creation and black economic empowerment

In total, we managed R708 million worth of projects, which were allocated to the private sector last financial year. This expenditure resulted in approximately 16 000 jobs in the province. 77% of this work was allocated to black construction companies from Limpopo. The Department has established two programmes aimed at black economic empowerment, the Gundo Lashu labour intensive roads contractor development programme and the Limpopo Sakhasonke emerging building contractor programme. We will discuss these two programmes in more detail later.

Roads

During 2002/3, we allocated R348 million to Road Agency Limpopo. This included R138 million worth of flood reconstruction funds. With these funds, we planned to tar 44 km of roads; rehabilitate, repair and reseal 559 km; regravel 50 km, and to repair or reconstruct 2 bridges. All of these projects were successfully completed. With the flood reconstruction funds, repairs to the Magoebaskloof Pass and the ThatheVondo Pass were completed. A bridge was constructed over the Olifants River at Phenge, commonly known as Sewayawaya - ending centuries of hardship for the local community. Sections of the following roads were also tarred: - Flag Boshielo to Apel; Cottondale to Manyeleti; Bochum to Blouberg; Kgubudi to Bakenberg; Mukula to Mhinga; Lenyenye to Thabina; and the Mafefe road. We also had discussions with Anglo Platinum, which resulted in a public-private-partnership for the tarring of a road between Northam and Swartklip.

With these projects, we have focussed on ensuring that major access routes of economic importance are kept in an acceptable condition, and we have also started to make headway with regard to addressing the backlog of roads to be tarred in previously disadvantaged areas. As I will discuss in more detail later, we plan to accelerate this tarring programme this financial year.

We also allocated R280 million to our internal road maintenance teams. These funds were used to:

* repair 27 300 square meters of potholes;
* carry out 82 627 square meters of crocodile crack sealing;
* carry out 411 170 blade kilometres of blading of gravel roads;
* clean culverts 27 155 times;
* build 290 culverts;
* carry out 77,7 million square metres of bush clearing;
* carry out 14.7 million square metres of grass cutting;
* plant or repair 18 754 road signs;
* regravel 355 km of gravel roads.

Both our internal roads maintenance teams and the provincial road agency were involved in the preparations for the eclipse event. Roads in the eclipse zone were improved, resting places were upgraded, and direction signs were installed to facilitate the smooth movement of people for the event.

Last year we mentioned in our speech to the Legislature that we had been engaging in a programme to improve the cleanliness of the provincial road reserves, through using our staff to pick up litter regularly, installing bins at all resting places, and installing "no littering" signs. We would like to thank the public for cooperating in observing our "no littering" signs, and we would like to encourage the public to continue to help us to keep our road reserves in a state that will make the province attractive to tourists.

Another aspect of managing the provincial road reserves is the management of the growing numbers of small business people who are trading in the road reserves. This involves striking a balance between ensuring that the road reserves are kept safe for passing traffic on the one hand, and supporting this important economic activity on the other hand. In this regard, we have been engaging with the farming community in the Mooketsi area to try to establish a public private partnership for the provision of proper trading facilities for the traders. Although we have not been successful in persuading the farming community to join hands with us in this regard, we are proceeding on our own to widen the road and build proper trading facilities. Our intention is then to formalise the trading at the new trading facilities.

Given our mandate to manage the road reserve properly, and in the context of the high unemployment level in the province, we have decided to extend this process of formalising trading in the road reserve throughout the province. We will be approaching the Department of Finance and Economic Affairs to discuss the possibility of providing small business development support to the traders, and the Department of Local Government and Housing regarding the possibility of related low-cost housing initiatives. We would also like to appeal to land-owners whose land borders on the road reserve and who have an interest in the formalisation of road reserve trading to approach us to discuss possible partnerships aimed at addressing this issue.

The Gundo Lashu labour intensive roads programme was launched during the past financial year. 24 locally-selected trainee contractors successfully completed a 14-week course on labour-intensive road works in Lesotho. 12 of the contractors also successfully completed their first on-site training projects and are now starting their second on-site training projects. The other 12 contractors are currently engaged in their first training projects. 55% of these contractors are women and 70% are youth. Each of the contractors employs approximately 100 local people, of whom more than 60% are women and more than 60% are youth.

Initial indications are that the roads being built using labour intensive methods under Gundo Lashu are cheaper than roads built using machine-intensive methods. At the same time, there is far greater employment creation, with 100 jobs being created per million rand spent under Gundo Lashu, as opposed to approximately 5 jobs being created per million rand spent with machine-intensive construction.

We have entered into an agreement with ABSA Bank to provide the contractors with access to credit. This has enabled them to purchase the necessary road construction equipment and tools and to obtain bridging finance for their projects.

We have also entered into a partnership with the Department of Labour, who are funding the training of the workers on the Gundo Lashu projects in construction skills and other skills in areas such as agriculture. We have noted concerns regarding the capacity of certain training providers and we will be looking into the issue. In addition, savings schemes for the workers are being put in place in conjunction with NGOs in the province. The programme continues to receive ongoing financial and advisory support from DFID and the International Labour Organisation.

In the light of the success of this programme and the President's announcement of the expanded Public Works Programme in his address during the opening of Parliament, we have been engaging with municipalities in the province to offer them assistance to engage in similar labour intensive roads programmes. Some municipalities have expressed interest and we will continue to try to replicate the programme in this way. We have also made presentations on the programme to the national Ministers of Public Works and Transport. We hope that Gundo Lashu will be viewed as an example and a torch-bearer for the expanded public works programme.

The Road Agency Limpopo has also been receiving donor support for a process of building its capacity for good governance, for both the Board and the officials of the Agency. This has resulted in the production of an action plan aimed at making the Agency fully compliant with the PFMA and the King II report, and other relevant legislation. In this regard, I am pleased to note that the Road Agency Limpopo received an unqualified audit report which did not raise any matters of emphasis for the 2001/2 financial year.

In our speech to the Legislature last year, we announced that we had drawn up a plan for the redefining of national, provincial and municipal roads in the province. We indicated that we had submitted the plan to the national government and that we had received a favourable response with regard to the proposed increase in the size of the national road network in the province. We can now announce that the South African National Roads Agency will be adding an additional 3000 km of national roads in the province, over the next ten years. The first two new national roads will be the Polokwane-Burgersfort route and the Vivo road to Musina.

We have also been continuing to engage with municipalities regarding the definition of municipal roads and the transfer of some provincial roads to District Municipalities. The national Department of Transport has recently initiated a process to develop a national strategy for the roads sector. This strategy will include definitions of national, provincial, district and local roads. This national process should add impetus to the process of clarifying responsibilities for roads in the province.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has completed a study on revenue raising possibilities for the Road Agency. The study indicated that it is not yet viable to toll any of our provincial roads. The management of the Agency are reviewing the report and will be preparing implementation plans for revenue raising where possible. However, Members should note that the revenue raising possibilities are limited, and that we will remain dependent on the fiscus for the funding of provincial roads for the foreseeable future.

Building

Over the past few years we have put special emphasis on improving the capacity of our building capital works management section. There has been a national tendency of under-expenditure on capital works in previous years. In order to avoid this problem occurring in Limpopo, and in the context of indications from national Treasury of increasing infrastructure allocations in the coming years, we have taken steps to ensure that we have the capacity to spend these funds well, both quantitatively and qualitatively. We have successfully recruited a number of additional professional personnel, and we will be continuing with this capacity building process this financial year. We have also signed service level agreements with the Departments of Education and Health and Welfare regarding the management of their capital works programmes.

During 2002/3, we managed 504 projects worth R188 million for the Department of Education. These projects were allocated to private sector construction companies through the preferential procurement tendering process. This resulted in the construction of 1216 new classrooms; renovations to 148 schools; repairs to 14 flood-damaged schools; repairs to 8 storm-damaged schools; maintenance of kitchen equipment, electrical connections and other repairs to colleges of education in all six districts; repairs to 13 marking centres; upgrading of a special school; upgrade 2 technical education colleges; upgrade one teacher's training college. We also managed 20 school upgrading projects funded by the Netherlands Government.

For the Department of Health and Welfare, we managed 97 projects worth R185 million. This resulted in the upgrading of 47 hospitals and 21 clinics. 28 welfare offices are in the process of being upgraded and a new head office building is in the process of being constructed for the Department. We also managed 6 projects to the value of R10 million for the Department of Transport, involving the upgrading of K53 testing stations.

Last financial year, we allocated R248 million to our building programme. We carried out further refurbishments of the three government complexes, and refurbishments of various smaller provincial government offices in the districts, including widespread installation of air conditioners. We completed the construction of a wall at the back of the Parliamentary Village. A major focus of our internal building teams was to upgrade the facilities in the permanent road camps which house our internal road maintenance teams. Most of these camps have very rudimentary infrastructure. We upgraded 49 camps last year, and we will continue to prioritise their upgrading in the coming financial year. The building teams were also used to carry out maintenance on residential houses. These teams also carry out maintenance on request by the Departments of Health and Education, who budget for the cost of the maintenance materials. As we mentioned in our speech to the House last year, we utilised some of our excess building teams to successfully complete the construction of 100 RDP houses at Batlokwa, in partnership with the Department of Local Government and Housing, which purchased the materials. Our internal building units also completed the construction of 11 donor-funded schools, and worked on the upgrading of 63 traditional offices.

In our address to the Legislature last financial year, we indicated that we were planning to introduce an emerging building contractor development programme this financial year. Honourable Speaker, we are pleased to announce that this programme is now under way. We advertised for people to go onto contractor learnerships under the programme, and we have selected the first group of 40 learners, who have commenced with their classroom training. Our intention is to put 200 emerging building contractors through learnerships over the next five years. This programme is being implemented in partnership with the Construction Education and Training Authority, which approved our application for funding for the learners. The selected emerging contractors are receiving classroom training leading to a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level II qualification in building contracting. They will also be provided with on-site practical training on school classroom block projects in the province. Negotiations are currently underway with financial institutions to provide access to credit to the trainee contractors. In addition, we are in the process of recruiting mentors to provide mentorship to the trainees.

Property and Facilities Management

The function of property management is perhaps the most challenging function of the Department. It embraces the creation and management of a comprehensive provincial property asset register; the management of leases on behalf of all provincial departments; and the management of the remaining residential property portfolio (including the collection of rent).

During 2002/3, the department made good progress in terms of developing and maintaining an improved provincial property asset register. A register with all known properties is now in place, although a number of the fields in the register, such as the title deed number, are not yet filled. A further 168 non-core residential properties were sold, valued at R16, 5 million, of which 75% were sold to previously disadvantaged individuals. Two blocks of flats were also sold (for a total of R3.1 million).

As part of the process of developing an improved asset register, we have been engaging in a process of vesting provincial government properties in the name of the province. During 2002/3 we processed vesting documentation for 62 properties.

Four provincial government guesthouses were leased out to local entrepreneurs through an open tendering process. This will result in income of R550 000 per annum for the province.

There are a number of properties which are owned by the provincial government, but which need to be transferred to municipalities. To date, 52 deeds of donation have been signed for the transfer of properties to municipalities.

We managed 71 leases for offices for various provincial departments. We also paid attention to the leases for our residential properties, and 95% of the leases for the residential properties are now in place. The Public Servants Association (PSA) took us to court to challenge the implementation of market-related rentals on these residential properties, and lost the case. We are now focusing on achieving 100% rent collection, and attorneys have now been appointed in all districts to take legal action against the remaining tenants who are in arrears.

Further improvements were made to the landscaping services of the Department, and a major improvement was effected to the landscaping at the parliamentary village in particular.

Community-based Public Works Programme (CBPWP)

We allocated ten million rand from our budget last financial year for CBPWP projects. These funds were allocated to all six municipalities for community-based projects involving roads, bridges, schools, crèches, bakeries, and poultry farms. In Bohlabela we funded two schools, in Capricorn we funded a cultural village and a sweet co-operative, in Waterberg we funded two schools and a bakery, in Vhembe we funded an access road and two schools, in Mopani we funded two poultry farms, and in Sekhukhune we funded a poultry farm, a bakery and a centre for the disabled. Approximately two hundred and fifty people were employed on these projects and were provided with various forms of training, including poultry farm management, entrepreneurship skills, and construction skills.

Service Delivery Improvement Programme (Re a Shoma)

In my budget speech last year, I described the Re a Shoma service delivery improvement programme which we have been implementing in our roads maintenance unit, and indicated that we would be extending the programme to our building maintenance and facilities management units. During last financial year this extension did take place, and Re a Shoma programmes are now also under way in the other core delivery areas of our department, again with donor support under the Integrated Provincial Support Programme or IPSP.

We also took measures to ensure that the gains achieved in the roads maintenance units are consolidated. To this end, we have created service delivery improvement units in each of the core delivery sections of the department. These SDI units are working closely with the consultants so that skills will be transferred to them, and so that the department can continue to develop improved management methods once the consultants have left.

Honourable Speaker, the Re a Shoma programme is constantly opening our eyes to new aspects of our work which could be improved. Although we have achieved significant improvements in service delivery as a result of Re a Shoma, we are fully aware that our service delivery still leaves much to be desired, in many respects. Through Re a Shoma, we intend to continue to use management methods such as business process reengineering, work measurement, project management, and activity-based costing to improve service delivery.

Letsema Programme

In support of the Letsema programme, we participated in cleaning campaigns at Penge Hospital, Mandagshoek Hospital, Mecklenburg Hospital, Giyani Municipality, Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, Tzaneen Municipality and Motetema Police Station. We will continue to participate eagerly in these Letsema campaigns this year, and we will be working with our sister departments to ensure that they grow from strength to strength, and that they are organised in such a way that the benefits are maximised.

Governance Issues

During 2002/3, the Department made good progress with regard to restructuring in terms of Resolution 7 of the Central Bargaining Chamber. A departmental task team was formed, with representation of management and unions. The task team endorsed the department's organogram, and we went through a process of placing staff against the available posts. Younger staff were placed against posts first. The remaining excess staff who could not be placed against posts were all over 55, and they were encouraged to take severance packages. As a result, 1600 excess staff left the department between February and April 2003. By virtue of being over 55, the excess staff obtained pensions as well as lump-sum payouts. This reduces the negative social impact of the severance packages. By the time that the restructuring exercise is complete in June 2003, the Department will no longer have a problem of excess staff.

The restructuring process has delayed our programme of improving the integrity of our personnel records on PERSAL. Now that the restructuring process is drawing to a close, we will again be prioritising the improvement of our personnel records.

During 2002/3 the Department provided Adult Basic Education to 1300 staff. 78 staff were sent on management development courses, 536 were provided with technical training and 122 employees received bursaries.

The skills profile of our Department is gradually changing from one characterised by large numbers of unskilled workers and few skilled staff; to one with fewer unskilled workers and more skilled, professional and managerial staff. Good progress was made during last financial year to employ more skilled staff. Employment equity principles were applied during this recruitment process, and gender representivity is gradually improving in the Department.

The Department has established a workplace health programme to address workplace health issues such as occupational health and safety, employee assistance, and HIV/AIDS. Staff have been appointed to manage the programme, and we expect this programme to start making inroads into our workplace health problems during the current financial year.

As with previous years, the Department continued to maintain a policy of zero tolerance towards fraud and corruption. The number of misconduct cases reduced during last financial year, compared to previous financial years.

During last financial year we worked hard on getting all of our employees to develop and sign performance instruments, in line with the new provincial performance management system, which has been developed by the Office of the Premier. We are now carrying out performance assessments in terms of these performance instruments. We are of the view that this performance management system is a critical weapon in the government's armoury in the battle against poor service delivery. However, it will take some time for us to build the capacity needed by our managers to use the system as an effective tool to achieve improved service delivery.

With regard to the PFMA, our Department has been meeting the regulatory requirements within the given deadlines. The Department improved its procurement system and is meeting the PFMA requirement for a procurement system which is "fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective". Our procurement processes are fully compliant with the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. We have improved our revenue management systems to meet the PFMA requirement that "effective and appropriate steps be taken to collect all money due to the department." We have also focused on improving our stores management, to meet the PFMA requirement of efficient and effective use of resources. Our payments to creditors have improved, but we still need to improve further to always meet the PFMA requirement of payment within 30 days. We believe that our efforts to be compliant with the PFMA have borne fruit, as illustrated by our improved Auditor General report for last financial year, as compared to previous financial years.

The Department has completed a risk assessment, which is another requirement of the PFMA. The identified high-risk areas include procurement, contracts management, revenue management, and exposure to legal action. Control measures have been identified to manage these risks. During the current financial year we will be focusing on implementing these control measures.

At the beginning of this financial year we transferred our IT functions to the State Information Technology Agency or SITA. We have entered into a Service Level Agreement with SITA, and we are in the process of appointing a Government Information Technology Officer or GITO, in line with the SITA Act. However, we have retained an information management function in the department, and during the current financial year we will be focusing on improving our communication with stakeholders and the media.

Over the past year we made further progress in introducing information technology in the department. All our district offices are now linked to a network. Information technology systems are being utilised to assist with the planning and implementation of roads and building projects. A continuing area of focus for us will be the eradication of digital illiteracy in our department.

In previous years we have reported that we have had insufficient funds to purchase the vehicles, which are required by our staff to carry out their work. Due to improved budgets and savings brought about by the restructuring process, we were able to address the transport shortage in the department to some extent last year, and will make more progress in this regard this financial year. Simultaneously, we have been improving our management of our vehicle fleet and training our transport officers. As a result, unlike previous years, last year we did not have any fraud cases relating to government vehicles.

We have also been paying attention to the improvement of other corporate issues in the Department, including records management and usage of telephones, and establishment of a help-desk. This will continue in the current financial year, during which we will also complete the upgrading of the switchboards in the district offices.
Awards

Our Department was honoured to the recipient of several awards during last financial year. During the Premier's Service Delivery Excellence Awards ceremony in 2002, the Roads Maintenance section of the Department was awarded the Gold award for the best provincial government institution, and the Department as a whole was awarded the Gold award for the best Department. These awards were in recognition of our service delivery improvement programmes and our response to the February 2000 floods. Our Re a Shoma service delivery improvement programme was also the recipient of a 2002 Platinum award for "innovative work in the field of poverty reduction and community development" from the Impumelelo Trust.

In October last year, the Department was given a best performing department award by the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) for the best performing department in Limpopo. The award was jointly adjudicated by SCOPA, the Auditor General and ABSA Bank. The Chairperson of SCOPA indicated they used criteria such as accountability, responsiveness to SCOPA and the Auditor General, and efforts to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We believe that this reward was made in recognition of the way in which our Department has used the Auditor General's reports as a means to improve itself. We have done this by producing thorough responses to queries, and by trying to put in place corrective measures to address the issues raised.

I am also pleased to announce that our Gundo Lashu programme was one of the finalists for the 2003 Service Delivery Innovation Award by the Centre for Public Service Innovation, under the Ministry of Public Service and Administration. The awards were presented at a ceremony in Johannesburg, which was hosted by Minister Fraser-Moloketi two weeks ago.

Honourable Speaker, although it was a great honour for us to receive these awards, we need to ensure that they do not make us complacent. The awards are only a form of recognition of our efforts to improve our service delivery - they are not an indication that we have reached our full potential. There are still many shortcomings in the management of our department, and these awards are a motivation to us to improve further.

PLANS FOR THE 2003/4 FINANCIAL YEAR

Roads

In this financial year (2003/4), we are transferring R465 million to Road Agency Limpopo. This includes R91 million as a final allocation from national Treasury for the repair of flood damaged roads in the province. It also includes R102 million for preventative maintenance, which will be used to rehabilitate, reseal and fogspray approximately 700 km of roads. There is also R52 million for regravelling, under the Gundo Lashu programme. R188 million has been allocated for the tarring of 110 km of roads. Sections of the following roads will be tarred: Flag Boshielo to Apel; Cottondale to Manyeleti; Giyani to Nkomo; Matavhela to Muswodi; Chuenespoort to Mankweng; Shongoane to GaSeleka; Elim to Bandelierkop; Modjadji to Mokwakwaila; Bochum to Steilloop; and Sekororo to Metz Hospital. We will also be upgrading the P16/2 Road near Northam in conjunction with Anglo Platinum.

We have also budgeted R300 million for routine road maintenance. These funds will be used to pay for personnel costs, stores and equipment for our internal roads maintenance teams to carry out maintenance work such as repair of pot-holes, crack-sealing, cutting of grass in the road reserve, blading of gravel roads, repair of road signs, and cleaning of culverts and side-drains.

The introduction of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) has allowed us to start doing multi-year planning for our roads projects. The current MTEF figures indicate that we will be allocating approximately R450 million to the Road Agency in 2004/5 and approximately R575 million in 2005/6.

According to national Treasury, the flood damage reconstruction funds will come to an end at the end of this year. (This accounts for the slight reduction in our roads budget between 2003/4 and 2004/5). Although we have made good progress in repairing the massive damage to the road network resulting from the 2000 floods, there will still be un-repaired roads and bridges at the end of this financial year. In this regard, we have made a submission to Treasury requesting further funds.

Since the announcement last year of changes to names of towns in the province, we have been carrying out the necessary planning and preparations to change the name signs on the provincial roads. The new signs are now being ordered and will be put up by the end of July this year.

For some time now the national Department of Public Works has been in the process of transferring the property related to the Gateway airport to the province. This transfer will include servitude for the airport road. Once this servitude is in place we will prioritise the upgrading of the road leading to the airport.

Building

This year we are going to manage R243 million for the Department of Education, which will include some new offices for the Department, 1726 new classrooms; and renovations to 28 schools; upgrading of two technical colleges; upgrading of three special schools and one community college; installation of toilet blocks at 103 schools; and R3 million worth of electrification of schools.

We are also going to manage R207 million for the Department of Health and Welfare, which will include the upgrading of 5 major hospitals and a number of welfare facilities.

This financial year we have allocated R270 million to our internal building operations. As mentioned earlier, we are planning to continue with the upgrading of our road camps, the construction of facilities at the Parliamentary Village, and the upgrading of government complexes and other government offices.

Property and Facilities Management

Over the past few years we have been focusing on establishing a number of programmes aimed at transforming the management of the provincial property portfolio, including the provincial property asset register and the disposal of non-core properties as mentioned earlier. These programmes are now well-established and teething problems have been largely overcome. This financial year we aim to accelerate their implementation. We have set ourselves a new target of disposing of the remaining non-core properties by the end of this financial year, and we intend to start vesting properties on a much larger scale.

During this financial year we will be implementing the recent decision of the Executive Council to further consolidate office space in Polokwane with the aim of establishing further stability in the provincial administration.

CBPWP

This financial year we have allocated R5 million to the CBPWP which we will utilise to fund the revitalisation of two clinics in Vhembe, a bakery and a centre for the disabled in Sekhukhune, a juice factory in Capricorn, a detergent factory in Bohlabela and a fence-making project in Waterberg. These projects are expected to generate approximately 125 jobs, with associated training.

Strategic Focus Areas for the 2003/4 Financial Year

In the current financial year, we will continue to utilise our expenditure to achieve government's goals of black economic empowerment and job creation. We will be managing R871 million worth of projects which will be allocated to the private sector. We estimate that this expenditure will result in approximately 19 000 jobs in the province. We also predict that more than 80% of this work will be allocated to black construction companies from Limpopo, through the preferential procurement process.

We are aware that there are a number of problems in the construction industry in the province. It is difficult for us to engage with this industry because it is fragmented and largely unorganised. We often find that our interactions with contractor organisations are really interactions with individuals representing their own personal interests. It is a challenge for society as a whole and business in particular to establish a credible organisation to represent contractors.

One of the problems in the industry is the exploitation of workers. We are aware that many of our contractors are paying their workers wages which are far below the gazetted minimum wage for the construction industry in Limpopo, and that occupational health and safety regulations are frequently being flouted on our construction sites. We will be taking appropriate action to address this issue in the near future.

Another of the problems in our industry is the poor quality of work which is produced by some of the professional engineering, architecture and quantity surveying firms in the province. We do not expect such problems from professional companies, and we will be continuing to engage with them to find ways of eradicating this problem.

The Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) has been established at national level to address some of the problems facing the construction industry. The CIDB has been established through an Act of the national Parliament, which requires that registers of contractors and public sector projects should be established. We have been participating in the work of this Board, and Limpopo has been selected as one of four sites nationally for the piloting of the forthcoming national Register of Contractors and Register of Projects. We have already met with stakeholders in our province to inform them about this, and we will now be consulting with them further regarding the implementation details.

Another important focus area for us for this financial year will be to continue to improve coordination and cooperation with municipalities. Last week we held a provincial Infrastructure Summit together with the Department of Local Government and Housing, all the municipalities in the province, and other infrastructure providers.

We will also be continuing to promote black economic empowerment through the Limpopo Sakhasonke emerging contractor development programme, and through the sale of non-core and redundant properties to previously disadvantaged individuals. The Gundo Lashu programme will result in both empowerment of contractors and significant job creation.

Honourable Speaker, as I present this budget vote 9 before this house for approval, I want to sincerely thank all the staff of the Department for their hard work, the tireless support they have shown me, and their dedication to serving the people of Limpopo.

I now proceed to present the budget for vote 9 for fiscal year 2003/4:

1. Administration: R 124,802,000
2. Government Buildings Maintenance 263,365,000
3. Roads and Bridges: R 765,491,000
4. National Public Works Programme: R 5,000,000
5. Properties and Facilities Management: R 84,981,000
TOTAL: R1, 243,639,000

The allocation of this budget is divided into standard items as follows:

1. Personnel Expenditure: R 498,509,000
2. Administrative Expenditure's 89,751,000
3. Stores and Livestock's 58,183,000
4. Equipment: R 29,105,000
5. Land and Buildings: R 24,350,000
6. Professional and Special Services: R 72,541,000
7. Transfer Payments: R 470,000,000
8. Miscellaneous Expenditure: R 1,200,000
TOTAL: R1, 243,639,000

These are represented graphically as follows:

In conclusion, I recommit our department to improved service delivery for a better life for all.

I thank you.

Issued by Limpopo Provincial Government

27 May 2003